Puppet
by Kedell Kiene
Summary: An unknown person is pulled back from the brink of some unknown place. Following, their expolits, we slowly see the way they shape their world, and the way they themselves are shaped.


Disclaimer: I neither own nor claim copyright on FFVII or any of its characters. This is simply a work of fan fiction meant for those of the genre to enjoy.

_**Puppet**_

Darkness. He probed his surroundings, yet in the blackness, one can sense nothing. Darkness. Deep enough that the cold bites into his very core. Darkness. His mind was numb, no thoughts were passing, and his mind was blank.

He floated. Hours passed into days. Days into weeks. Weeks into eons. Perhaps he was here for eternity. Maybe it was just a few hours. In the void, you could never tell. Laughter sprang in his ears. The taunting voice of a man gone mad. He closed his mind to it. _I won't believe it._

A young wisp of a girl in a cowboy hat floated past his vision. He shut his eyes tight. He could not crack here, this was his place now, and he was master.

The young girl screams and the man laughs yet again. He covers his ears and curls into a ball. _No more. It can't be true, I don't want to listen._

He hears another scream pierce the darkness. His mind collapses as he realizes... this time it is his own.

He awakens again to the darkness. Yet in this place, is anyone truly awake? His mind once again begins to summon images of terror to entertain his lonely mind. Vats of creatures. A town ablaze. More horrendous laughter. A girl dead at his feet. He again howls into the void, asking for release.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, something flips open. He tries to shove it shut once again. Yet he knows. For release, one must admit the truth of what he was seeing. His mind flees from the thought in terror.

Curled once again in the darkness, he floats. _All of it has to be lies._ Something once again tickles the edge of his mind. An insidious whisper that says, "Or so you want to believe, the truth often hurts much more." He leans forward and begins to cry.

Something once again tickled the edge of his mind, yet... this one was different. It's presence alien within the void.

"I'll bring you back," it whispered delicately.

"I don't want to go," he replied. "Not back to that."

"You must come back," she said, care in every word. "We need you."

Shifting his perception, he could see a faint light in the gloom. A grain of white sand upon a globe of complete darkness. "I cannot go back, cannot return to all of them, they wouldn't accept me."

"You must go back," she pleads. "There is so much unfinished. I want you here with us," she cries, tears in her voice. "We need to finish everything... especially him. He stole so much from us, and hurt us both." She vehemently spat, "and he killed her!"

The box in his mind shattered, and he nodded. _We must finish this._

He reached out to the light.

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The real world. Again. Everything is hazy. He shakes his head. _Am I still dreaming? This seems so... familiar._ A man runs from his left. _Another guard._ Hefting the large sword in his hands, he deftly moves it to block the shots from the man's upraised pistol.

Nothing would stop him from getting to the top of this tower. Shinra must be stopped. Somewhere below something tickles his mind, but he does not register it for what it is. Instead, he brings the sword over his head, and slices his blade from the man's ears to his toes.

Five more floors to go. Wave after wave of men seem to be in his way, but he presses on body bleeding and aching. Finally killing one man near the elevator, he discovers a small card upon his body. Walking onto the elevator, adrenalin pumping, he slides the card through its reader. Soon he would meet Shinra.

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_It's still all fuzzy. _A man and a young woman stood before him. It called to his being again. Shaking his head he dismissed It. At least he tried to. It cried with a fury and rage he could only hope to understand, or at least avoid. It wanted something.

Looking from the girl to the man, he turned to the object they fought over. A black stone. _This... is..._He shook his hair to clear his thoughts. Once again It roared from Its hidden depths. "It's mine," It whispered seductively within his mind. "Bring it to me."

A sense of panic began to overtake him. This was not right; he knew it to his core. It could not have the stone. He struggled. His mind twisted within Its oily grasp. Offering him both pleasure and pain, he fought against Its iron clad grasp. _I will not give it to you. _"Yes you will," it whispered again, the sound of pure joy and mirth upon its voice. "I own you, and you will do as I say."

His hand tightened upon the stone.

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_Still fuzzy. Why am I going through all of this?_

He stood above her, sword raised. The innocence on her lowered head was one that wrenched his heart to the point of agony. She was pure, she was the last. She alone could stop that man. His being cried out to her, for release and for salvation.

It called again. "Kill her," It whispered slyly within her ear.

He raised his sword, then pulled it aside. _I cannot. She deserves to live, she has done nothing wrong._

"Kill Her!" It cried from its hidden depth.

He took a step forward.His very being screamed. _You cannot make me so this!_ His soul once again reached out to her. It stretched to reach her existence. To warn her. To save her.

Her head began to lift, and his soul rejoiced.

"KILL HER NOW!" It cried, rending every fiber of his being, and shredding his very existence. He cried out, or perhaps he only did so in his mind. He realized now, as his sword began to come down upon the innocent creature, as cries sprang up around him, that he was now only a puppet.

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It was dark again, though not very cold. He tried to open his eyes again, yet he could not. Testing his ability to move, he discovered he couldn't. _What is this place?_

"Your prison." It whispered, joy once again ringing through Its voice. "Do you know not where you are?"

He began to panic. He could not be within Its grasp yet again.

"Silly child," It whispered. "You've been within my grasp for ages. I steadily wrapped myself about you, within you. For now you are as much me as I am you."

He screamed and She laughed.

Suddenly he could see again. Far below him stood men, one in white, several in blue. And behind them one with a long sword. His mind shattered and he screamed, the sound roaring across the chamber. All of it came flooding back. The man who ravaged a town, who killed a girl, who released her... It. It was him.

She began to voice her hideous laughter once again. "So," she whispered in the recesses of his mind. "You have discovered me then. I guess I can do as I want now, my puppet."

The rock beneath his feet rumbled, and he sailed towards the ground. Suddenly the boy was in front of him, the stone outstretched. It seemed to flow towards him, lifted by the crystalline water about him. _No. I will not do this!_ He screamed in a final defiance.

He felt the energy begin to move down his hands, felt it build within the stone that lay between his hands. Felt it twist and turn and slowly form the ancient runes within that would call the great meteor. He cried once more as She began to prod within his own skull, extending her tendrils to complete her puppet.

With a final thought he thought _how could I ever call you mother?_

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He was in darkness again, this time different. It wasn't the cold blackness of before. _I wonder where I was before._

"You were dead," a soothing voice said behind him.

Turning, he found no one. "Who are you he," cried to the darkness.

"I am that which was, and which will always be, if Jenova does not have her way."

_Jenova have her way. She only wishes to destroy all; I know that now... she is a mother, of destruction._

"You are right," said the voice. "Though she is much more. She is the devourer of worlds, an unknown god."

_A god?_

"Or at least she wishes to be," came the voice. But she must absorb planets, and keep a body in the process."

_My body... I...She pulled me back from death did she not._

"Yes," the voice simply spoke.

_Who, or what are you then?_

"I am..." it began, but then a howling din shattered the peacefulness of his dark sanctuary, drowning the remaining words as he was wrenched once again back to consciousness.

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He looked down at the group of warriors below his feet. There they stood in utter defiance, staring up at the puppet as he moved. He listened as Jenova spoke through him of the atrocities she would commit, and of the death of those brave warriors below.

His very being called to them to end his agony, to destroy the very monster within. The blond haired one called out something in defiance. A memory flashed across his mind. _He did it before... if anyone can destroy her, he can._

Suddenly a blinding agony shot through his body. He could feel his body begin to stretch and morph. His soul screamed out as unbelievable pain shot through every limb. As his consciousness once again began to fade, he felt, ever so slightly, a warm a familiar presence behind him slip once more.

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Once again he was in darkness, once again within his mind. This time, the voice did not come back, and he felt alone within the darkness. He probed his senses to see what he could tell. Surprisingly he found that he could sense what when on beyond his mind.

_Perhaps she is weakening then._

"Ye... weak... ut... despr...," he heard the soothing voice whisper once again. Again he could not help but notice the familiar warmth of this voice, so unlike the slippery oiliness that was Jenova.

His heart seemed to yearn for this voice, this thing, but he did not know why. It seemed a place where all would be forgotten, brought back, forgiven, and fresh. Suddenly he felt himself ripped from his solitude again, as Jenova let out an agonized scream.

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He was yet again awake. This time there was something different though. Jenova seemed unable to make him leave. He looked around and realized that his body was no longer what it once was.

Wings all about, he heard Jenova once again call the warriors, threatened their lives. Yet now he could sense an edge to that once silky voice. She was frightened. She was loosing. She also realized this. He could feel Jenova pull upon the forces of all the planets she had absorbed in her lifetime. Could feel her draw the runes of great sorcery their world had never known upon the very air itself.

_I can do nothing from here. _So for the first time ever, he willingly retreated.

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He cried out to the voice once more, "Help me defeat her."

A warm light began to suffuse the room. The voice called, "you must release that which you bound, let it to return to me, so that we may stop this all."

A sudden realization hit Sephiroth, and he understood. This was Gaia, and yet the voice... it was that of the girl. Bowing his head, he understood.

_I have taken her life within me; I must now return it... and myself, to Gaia._

Looking around though, he could see no way to do so. Suddenly a glimmer of light green appeared far above him, and to his amazement he saw the young man falling quickly towards him.

_I must make him attack me._

Slashing at the boy, he received a hundred fold attacks for his simple strike. As each blow landed on him, he felt a string detach from him. As his blood left him, so did he feel Jenova evaporate. A look of thankfulness upon his eyes, he fell back slowly, and released it all. As he faded this one last time, he realized, he was warm, and that he could finally find peace.

Fin.

Hope you all enjoyed. This piece is still a rough draft, but just wanted to get opinions on it, and se how well I kept the identity of the main character for most of the story. Anyways, look forward to all the comments.

K. Kiene


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